How do I calculate milk collection transport emissions per litre?
Add the diesel used by collection vehicles on village routes at 2.68 kg CO2 per litre and divide by litres of milk collected. Own vehicles are Scope 1; hired route contractors are Scope 3, Category 4. Report per route to find long, lightly loaded runs.
What to count
- Diesel for collection trucks and tankers.
- Route distance and litres collected per route.
- Chilling at bulk milk coolers, as a separate electricity line.
Which scope
Vehicles the dairy owns and runs are Scope 1. Route contractors paid per trip or per litre are Scope 3, Category 4.
Per litre
Divide by litres collected. Combine with chilling and plant figures for a farm-gate-to-plant transport and cooling number.
Worked example: collection routes (one month, illustrative inputs)
- Diesel: 4,500 litres x 2.68 = 12,060 kg CO2
- Milk collected: 1,500,000 litres
- Per litre: 12,060 / 1,500,000 = 0.00804 kg CO2
Inputs are illustrative; use fuel and collection records.
What Senseible does here
Senseible reads fuel invoices and fuel card statements (diesel 2.68 and CNG 2.69 kg CO2, IPCC 2006 defaults) into a fingerprinted Scope 1 record. Hired transport goes to the Scope 3 evidence trail, and distance or tonne-km estimates are labelled as estimates.
Sources: GHG Protocol Corporate Standard, IPCC 2006 Guidelines, Volume 2 Energy (fuel defaults), GLEC Framework for logistics emissions (Smart Freight Centre)
Last reviewed 2026-10-21.